Meeting of the Blessed!

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Sg 2:8-14; Lk 1:39-45

Today’s Gospel highlights the meeting of the blessed in the persons of Mary, Elizabeth, John, and Jesus.  

The Gospel describes Mary rushing in haste to meet with her cousin Elizabeth. 

Blessed Mothers: Mary’s encounter with Elizabeth signifies the meeting of the blessed mothers. Mary found favor in the eyes of God that she became the mother of the Son of God. Elizabeth’s blessedness can be explained through her miraculous conception at an old age in her life. The miracle was not just a blessing that God intended for Elizabeth but she herself acknowledged it saying, ‘The Lord has done this for me…He has shown His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people’ (Lk 1:25). The two mothers who have found favor with God meet each other to share their blessings. 

Blessed Sons: It is also a meeting of the blessed sons because Elizabeth acknowledges the fact that John ‘leaped for joy’ (Lk 1:44) in her womb. It is not only because of Mary’s greeting that John leaped for joy but also because of the chance meeting of the unborn John with his unborn Savior. No words are exchanged between the two but still, the communication takes place between them. If hearts can converse, words become unnecessary and redundant. We discover in the meeting of the blessed sons the art of admiring the other with our mere presence, without the need for any exchange of words. 

One popular explanation describing the Indian way of greeting the other with folded hands (Vanakkam or Namaste) holds that when we greet the other through such gesture, it acknowledges the fact that ‘The Divine in me meets the Divine in you.’

Mary’s encounter with Elizabeth helps us realize that real spirituality is about helping others find the divine in us just as we do in them. 

What more can we imagine giving the other if not for sharing our blessings with them?

Let us pray that we may be a blessing to all just as Jesus, the Divine Child, comes among us as our blessing.  

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar